manc-mag

He had the same stone for years, it's in his autobiography. He must have upgraded to a tennis ball when he signed professional forms.

The national sport of Thailand is thai boxing. In Japan, baseball is more popular than football and sumo is the national sport. Sure football is popular in China but so are many other sports like martial arts, table tennis, basketball etc. So I think it's a cultural thing, football is not as dominant in Asia as it is in Europe or South America. India is an enigma when it comes to sports, 1,2 billion inhabitants, at the last summer olympics they won three medals... The fact is whether you dress stats up or not there are more people playing and watching football in Asia than there are in Europe. That's an indisputable fact. How is it a fact? Do you reckon China or India have anywhere near the footballing facilities or setup that European countries have? Whatever your ability at football in this country there are tons of places to play: 5 aside, 7 aside, loads of Sunday Leagues, Northern Alliance, Northern League etc. In India you get a cricket bat and a dusty strip of land to play on if you are lucky. Stanley Matthews didn't have facilities. If you ever read John Edward Thompson Milburn's book the only facility he ever ever had was a stone, that's how he learned to play football. In the last thirty years this area of 1m produced at least four players who would be the greatest ever in an area of 4,700m. That is a fact, and mentioning solely facilities, and the fact in some countries football isn't number one, is basically saying you haven't got an answer as to why this is. Aye and if he had only that stone today he wouldn't even be signed to a club. He took it a bit far kicking the same stone for 10 years like, sure there were plenty of other stones even back then. On a serious note though small balls (fnarr) are the key. No point kids kicking size fives around when theyre four years old just because Sports Direct sells them for £1.99, it's like a beach ball at that age and if that's all you practice with you wont be able to trap a bag of wet cement when you're older. I always used a tenniser as a kid and I use a foam ball thats smaller than a tenniser these days just kicking around the house. A size five is like a magnet after that when you're playing properly.

The national sport of Thailand is thai boxing. In Japan, baseball is more popular than football and sumo is the national sport. Sure football is popular in China but so are many other sports like martial arts, table tennis, basketball etc. So I think it's a cultural thing, football is not as dominant in Asia as it is in Europe or South America. India is an enigma when it comes to sports, 1,2 billion inhabitants, at the last summer olympics they won three medals... The fact is whether you dress stats up or not there are more people playing and watching football in Asia than there are in Europe. That's an indisputable fact. How is it a fact? Do you reckon China or India have anywhere near the footballing facilities or setup that European countries have? Whatever your ability at football in this country there are tons of places to play: 5 aside, 7 aside, loads of Sunday Leagues, Northern Alliance, Northern League etc. In India you get a cricket bat and a dusty strip of land to play on if you are lucky. Stanley Matthews didn't have facilities. If you ever read John Edward Thompson Milburn's book the only facility he ever ever had was a stone, that's how he learned to play football. In the last thirty years this area of 1m produced at least four players who would be the greatest ever in an area of 4,700m. That is a fact, and mentioning solely facilities, and the fact in some countries football isn't number one, is basically saying you haven't got an answer as to why this is. Uber!

Aye, when you think about it you only have to imagine how many brilliant footballers the US could produce if that's where the money was. In fact it's best not to think about it at all. Thank fuck.

Sikhs are rubbish at head tennis btw. Total waste of time if you ever get an invite.

That sounds all too believable.

Whatever happened to Freddie Adu by the way? Wasn't he once s'posed to be the next Francis Jeffers?

Do Australasians count? Not that that brings the average up in any meaningful sense.

An inconvenient but inescapable truth. That's essentially why you just have to ignore what Leazes says, because all he's doing is shouting slogans at the end of the day. It's obvious that if you spend more money you have greater ready access to the 'obviously better' players, but MA isn't going to go down that road so we're all wasting our time 'debating' that. Not that we are, everyone is in agreement on that so it's a complete fallacy to say there are those on here that are 'blinkered' to his overall scheme or priorities. It's just about trying to gauge what people sensibly think we should be capable of under our own steam. Not that we all wouldnt want to be bringing in the David Silva's of this world, but that is only possible if you're using non-NUFC revenue. That's a contextual reality. I've only experienced one time in my lifetime when non-NUFC revenues were used on a large scale to fund the team and it resulted in the most exciting period in the clubs recent history-so the link between spending and good players isn't some sort of blind spot-but if we're being realists (and if we're to have the only debate worth having) we have to accept that that was 1. not only non-NUFC money, but also bank money, which creates huge debts that future generations have to service, and 2. if we're wanting to compete in the Prem again, being as those sorts of finance arrangements are no longer an option, what you're left with is very simply asking for an owner to stick their hands in their own pockets for the first time in the clubs history. Now again, just to reinforce the point, we all know Ashley isn't going to do that, so the question very simply is at what level can a self sustaining club with one of the biggest fanbases (top 5) in the country achieve? When you're down to the margins we are now, naming rights/sponsorship actually become a massive, massive deal. So if he dicks us on that (for the sake of a few million quid) he's a cunt of the highest order. We're third basically on vapours at the moment-fantastic effort, but it deserves recognition through reinforcements.

So just how camp is your accountant?

‘‘Newcastle was a brand to him and he wanted to use it to market his business abroad – he had a long term vision,” said Hall. which Toonpack and the grey man have been disputing for years when I've told them this, and still do, but I'm sure they know best 1. Making things up again 2. Listen for the first 2 seconds (in case you'd switched off before then). http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15682273.stm Sadly, you're so obsessed by one all consuming agenda you're perversely delighting in these events-as evidenced beyond reasonable doubt by your insane number of wildly dissociated posts in this thread. Suddenly now you were predicting ground name changes etc. Aye, righto you told us he'd do that all along, we should have listened etc etc blah blah ad infinitum. Genuinely childlike behavioural issues basically and nowt more than that.

Definitely going to be sports direct. Pictured you saying that ala Dustin Hoffman in Rainman.

He loves that lemonade gag, mind.

That's still hilarious at 34 but it must have been fucking hysterical at 13.

You've been away too long tbf.

How grim did they look man? And that was just to start with, they looked fucking hideous once they'd been through the wash a couple times.

Bookmarked.

Also, while the Umbro badge is missing, they used to peel off anyway. Well the old crest certainly did at any rate. Curled up so you had to pick bits off. These ones look like the badges are embroidered tbf. That was the shit thing with Umbro shirts - everything was replica except the patches. Oh aye and for years they never sold shirts with a sponsors logo did they? I think the first one I had that did was the barcode effort with the Greenalls logo. The badges came off the shorts for that one even quicker still like iirc. You got the full kit at that age obviously. And aye, the barcode kit was the first time I remember sponsors appearing on the replicas 'as standard'

Chill your beans Antoine, I havent bought it! I've got the original too like J69 although it's a bit small now. I always wished the original had the blue star on mind.

Also, while the Umbro badge is missing, they used to peel off anyway. Well the old crest certainly did at any rate. Curled up so you had to pick bits off.

Seriously fuck you, you wanker. Calling people retards is tantamount to being the lowest of low and you do it often. Have you ever actually had to live with someone that is mentally disabled, no? I thought not and think yourself luck Charlotte or your other bairns aren't, cunt. Maybe one day you actually realise the true meaning of the word retard is but I hope for your sake you don't. My niece is mentally handicapped and it's probably the hardest thing our family has had to deal with. I don't believe that changes me thinking you're thick as fuck or a total prick, that last post just confirmed it. Seriously fuck you, you wanker. Calling people retards is tantamount to being the lowest of low and you do it often. Have you ever actually had to live with someone that is mentally disabled, no? I thought not and think yourself luck Charlotte or your other bairns aren't, cunt. Maybe one day you actually realise the true meaning of the word retard is but I hope for your sake you don't. My niece is mentally handicapped and it's probably the hardest thing our family has had to deal with. I don't believe that changes me thinking you're thick as fuck or a total prick, that last post just confirmed it. Really? And here is you calling anyone that disagrees with you retard or spastic - you have no fucking idea. Yeah I might be a total prick but at least I've never resorted to cheap and the lowest of low insults. Can you say the same? This argument is like the equivalent of a Dutch auction.

Couldn't disagree more. Fair enough if it was at Highbury it was a new ground called Ashburton Grove, sounded like a road off Stanhope Street. Aye, really respectful of tradition. The point isnt a complex one, moving a stadium for naked commercial reasons is more of an affront to the traditon and history of a club than a reversible name change. The relevance is that the media and you have argued that it's ok to move a stadium for clear commercial reasons but not to rename. As I said, I thought that was unfair and probably deliberate on the part of the media. Regarding the media being frenzied and reporting that there are wild objections two hours before they could have known is a moot point for me. It's irrelevant because it was obvious that it would get the adverse reaction, the only plausible way I can see for anyone to have another point of view is to wind people up like Adrian Durham clearly did last night. Alex the point about them changing Highbury in to a block of flats, lets face it Arsenal should be one of the five best clubs in the world. They really should, I've said this before and it's true, if you added up all of the football fans in South East England my guess is over 40% of them would support Arsenal, every fucka supports them. They have a bigger worldwide support than all bar Man Utd, Africans love them, Asians love them, the French love them they're fucking massive. They couldn't continue at Highbury to compete at the level they had, as sad as it was for them to leave there was NO OPPOSITION. 38,000 wasn't enough for them to compete. Don't get me wrong I'm sure you've been to Highbury loads of times the same as I have, and you will know there's a main road behind the East Stand, gardens behind the North Bank and Clock End, and behind the East End 6 bedroom Edwardian mansions. So they couldn't do anything at all. As for turning them in to flats it made them £100m and the flats actually look very stylish and the buildings are still intact. We're not moving anywhere, we're staying in our home, just making ourselves look like Gwhat Shops at every corner. He is to Newcastle United what T Dan Smith was to Old Eldon Square. Younguns might not remember Reggie Perrin, but he was a self made millionaire, he was thick as fuck, didn't have a clue what he was doing, he was a psychopath, and he made his millions by literally selling absolute shite. Reggie Perrin is Ashley to a t, and I'm sorry like but I reject the notion of what Arsenal did being worse, for one the public accepted it, no one, apart from people trying to be clever accepts this. Actually I've only been to Highbury once mate. I totally agree with what you're saying btw. I only went into it because you weren't really getting my point. What Arsenal did was an affront to tradition though. But for all the right reasons. This is just a blatant piss-take. “Well, you’re not looking at the whole pie Jenny. Wernham Hogg is one big pie, and if they’ve let me in charge of that one big pie, then I’ll be in charge of the pie, and the people are the fruit” “I don’t have time for the pie thing David.”

The boys are blacked up in town!

How do you always stay once step ahead, Deaders?